1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a hand-held electrical communication device and an image processing method, and more particularly to a hand-held electrical communication device with powerful functions but simple architecture and an image processing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional mobile phone is shown. The mobile phone 100 includes an optical sensor 110, an image signal processing chip 120, a baseband chip 130 and a liquid crystal panel 140. The optical sensor 110 is coupled to the image signal processing chip 120 via a Consultative Committee of International Radio (CCIR) bus. The image signal processing chip 120 is coupled to the baseband chip 130 via another CCIR bus. All CCIR buses are uni-directional. The optical sensor 110 generates many original image frames being raw image frames. The optical sensor 110 transmits the original image frames to the image signal processing chip 120.
Referring to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a conventional image signal processing chip is shown. The image signal processing chip 120 includes a CCIR receiver 121, an image processing engine 122, a scaling engine 123 and a CCIR transmitter 124. The image signal processing chip 120 receives many original image frames from the optical sensor 110 via the CCIR receiver 121. The image processing engine 122 executes the original image frames image processing functions such as automatic exposure, automatic white balance or automatic focusing so to obtain many adjusted image frames. The scaling engine 123 scales the adjusted image frames so to obtain many scaled image frames according to the resolution of the liquid crystal panel 150. The CCIR transmitter 124 outputs the scaled image frames to the baseband chip 130. The baseband chip 130 displays the scaled image frames on the liquid crystal panel 140.
As the functions of the mobile phone 100 are getting more and more versatile, the mobile TV has become one of the appended functions of the mobile phone 100. Referring to FIG. 3, another example of the conventional mobile phone is shown. The mobile phone 300 includes an optical sensor 310, an image signal processing chip 320, a baseband chip 330, a liquid crystal panel 340 and a mobile TV receiver 350. The mobile phone 300 uses the mobile TV receiver 350 for receiving many compressed video data and many compressed audio data. Then, the mobile TV receiver 350 transmits the compressed video data and audio data to the baseband chip 330. The baseband chip 350 decompresses the compressed video data and video data, and then respectively transmits the decompressed video and audio data to the liquid crystal panel 340 or an audio device (not illustrated in the diagram).
Also, an external memory interface (EMI) can be used for loading an extra circuit on the baseband chip to provide the mobile TV function. Referring to FIG. 4, yet another example of the conventional mobile phone is shown. The mobile phone 400 includes an optical sensor 410, an image signal processing chip 420, a baseband chip 430, a liquid crystal panel 440, a mobile TV receiver 450 and an application processor 460. Compared with mobile phone 300, the mobile phone 400 uses the mobile TV receiver 450 for receiving many compressed video data and many compressed video data. Then, the mobile TV receiver 450 transmits these compressed video data and audio data to the application processor 460 loaded on baseband chip 430. The application processor 460 decompresses these compressed video data and audio data, and then respectively transmits the decompressed video and audio data to the liquid crystal panel 440 or an audio device (not illustrated in the diagram).
However, both the mobile phone 300 and the mobile phone 400, which respectively use a baseband chip 350 and an application processor 460 for decompressing the compressed video data and audio data, have to largely change the huge and complicated software architecture of the baseband chip, that is, the main-machine interface (MMI) of the baseband chip. Such change implies cost increase and is disadvantageous for the integration of the mobile phone and the mobile TV.